


the birthday no one remembered (well, almost no one)

by vampophobe



Category: Be More Chill, Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: M/M, anyways magic the gathering is gay now i've decided that, its a bit hard to tell so, magic the gaythering, the beginning takes place back when they were in like seventh grade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 22:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10840542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampophobe/pseuds/vampophobe
Summary: Michael wouldn't lie, he'd had better birthdays.  But he sure as hell had had worse ones too.





	the birthday no one remembered (well, almost no one)

The day started with raspberry poptarts, which as everyone knows, are objectively the worst flavor.

Michael woke up to the gentle beeping of his alarm clock. In this context, "gentle" means "loud and obnoxious to the point of that if you weren't used to it, your eardrums would probably be blown out." Whether this was lucky or not, Michael was more than used to it.

He quickly got dressed- red hoodie, jeans, the usual- and padded down the stairs in his socks with his converse hooked on his two fingers. His father was standing behind the kitchen aisle, straightening his tie and shoveling spoonful after spoonful of Cheerios into his mouth at the same time. 

"Mornin' Dad." Michael said. He got a grunt of acknowledgment in return. 

Breakfast (well, Michael tying his shoes while his father ate breakfast) was silent except for the clinking of a spoon against a bowl and the television murmuring in the background. Luckily, the awkward almost-quiet didn't last for long; Michael's father unceremoniously dropped his bowl into the sink and grabbed his coat from the countertop, slipping it on as he walked out the door. No goodbyes.

Michael looked up at the sound of the screen door opening. His dad slid him a silver package and then turned and left. His breakfast.

Damn, it must be his birthday. His dad gave him something.  
~  
As mentioned before, they were raspberry flavored. Michael had to figure that one out the hard way and then face the consequences (i.e spitting up his half chewed bite of poptart into his neighbor's rose bush). He probably shouldn't have expected anything more, but hey, a kid can dream for the day his dad cares enough to give him brown sugar.

His favorite Bob Marley song came on on the bus though. That was pretty okay.

He got a water bottle dumped "accidentally" into his lap on the bus. That was pretty not okay.  
~  
Michael stepped into the gym with a soaking crotch and a little less dignity. He'd heard the "aw, Michael wet his pants" joke about eight times since he walked through the front door. He plopped his bookbag down onto the floor and sat down to wait for his grade to be called up for homeroom. Oh, sweet, he loved this Greg Isaacs song.

"Michael!" he heard someone call. Well, "someone" was being generous to the amount of friends he had. It was Jeremy. He heard Jeremy call.

Jeremy lowered himself on the floor next to Michael. He seemed kind of sweaty, which would've been odd for anyone else on an October day in New Jersey. Jeremy was at the peak of his awkward phase, though. It was to be expected.

Michael pulled his headphones off and let them settle around his neck. "What's up, Jer?" he asked.

Jeremy seemed very interested in his hands. "Nothing much," he said. He looked up at Michael. "What's up with you?"

"The usual, you know how it is. I got poptarts today though; he remembered that I can't reach the shelf where the breakfast stuff is."

"Really? What kind?"

"Raspberry."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

They let a silence fall over them. Well, silent except for the persistent shrieking of the rest of their grade. Michael reached up to put his headphones back on, but Jeremy reached up and placed a hand on his to stop him. Michael raised an eyebrow at him and Jeremy took in a shaky breath.

"I, uh... I have a gift for you." he said.

A gift? "Oh, Jeremy, you didn't have to do that-"

"B-but I wanted to!" Jeremy blurted out, a tad too loud, but not too loud for anyone else to hear.

Michael grinned. Jeremy was adorable when he was nervous.

"Well, what is this gift?" he asked.

Jeremy reached into the front pocket on his backpack and pulled out a card. Michael gasped as his jaw fell open.

"Is-is that the Black Lotus card?" he asked, trying to keep his voice at a socially acceptable volume.

Jeremy's face lit up at Michael's reaction. "Uh-huh," he said. "Do you like it?"

"Dude, I freaking love it!" Michael exclaimed. "Where did you find it?"

"Truthfully? The story makes it seem a lot less cool, but I found it on the sidewalk outside a GameStop." Jeremy said.

Michael smiled even wider. "If anything, it makes it more cool!"

Jeremy gave a short laugh and the silence fell over them again. Michael couldn't stop looking at his new present. But he realized something that made him look back at his friend.

"What about giving me a Magic the Gathering card made you so nervous?"

Jeremy froze. His eyes darted around, looking at anything but Michael. "Well, actually..." he said, picking at his collar. "There's a part two to your gift."

"Oooh, a part two? You're really treatin' me today, Heere." Michael responded. Jeremy chuckled nervously.

"Yeah..." he said. "Do you- do you want it now?"

"Sure." Michael said. What was he so worked up over?

Jeremy looked back and forth for a second, checking if anyone was... looking? Why-

Jeremy darted forward and kissed Michael. The bell rang. Jeremy ran.

Michael was late for homeroom.  
~  
He was on his front swing, listening to it creak as he rocked back and forth. He'd been staring at that card for a good fifteen minutes now, reliving it. How shitty he'd felt before, how his heart had soared when someone had remembered that he had a birthday, how hot his face his felt after Jeremy had run away. How he hadn't been able to stop thinking about that moment for weeks after it happened.

He felt tears prick at his eyes. "Burn it." he said, and with a flick of his wrist, the card went spiraling into the fire. He dug his hand around in the cardboard box next to him for his next victim.

"The ticket from the first concert we went to together..."

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: @vaporeoff
> 
> thanks for reading!


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